Hey guys, I recently was willed rifle. Details as follows"

Enfield Percussion cap 1859 with 36.5 inch barrel
Rifle was converted to breech loader between 1860 by Enfield Armoury to fire black powder .577 Snider rounds from the previous black powder round it came with.
Rifle has 2  band pattern which should mean NCO shorter rifle of 30.5inches, but instead has the lenght of the standard 3 band stock. Doesnt look like a band is missing.

Its missing a ram rod but ive found a replacement. Bore slightly pitted but other than some mild rusting in chamber area not horribly bad. The rifle has the browning military conversion coating on the barrel. The receiver is apparently case hardened iron and has resultant dark grey look. Its got brass trigger guard, buttplate and foreend cap on stock.  

So question is how to restore? Not sure if it will ever be shot. Not intersted in selling it but wanted to clean it up.  The barrel as mentioned has the traditional "browning process" on it with the recipe being roughly this according to field British manual from the time.

Nitric Acid 1/2 ounce
Sweet Spirit of 1/2 ditto. [toxic ethyl nitrite]
Spirits of Wine 1 ditto. [ethyl alcohol]
Blue Vitriol 2 ditto [copper sulfate]
Tincture of Steel 1 ditto. [alcoholic solution of the chloride of iron]

Not really wanting to mix up the cancerous acid crap above. It involves some boiling of the barrel as well to stop the acid.  

So this doesnt leave alot of options, the one possible is bluing I suppose, but it wont look to authentic. The other maybe would be stripping browning and going with a fully polished barrel that was popular on the 1853 pattern Enfield at some points.  

For the wood I was going to strip old oil mix using turpentine and thought I would re oil using straight boiled linseed oil.  The original recipe for the stock stain from Enfield as per field manual was this

Spirits of Wine 1 Quart [ethyl alcohol]
Dragon's Blood powder 3 Drams [bright red resin used in varnish]
Shellac bruised 1 Ounce

For the brass was going with usual Brasso.


Any ideas on the above? I am abit hesitant on taking stock screws out due to age. Is there a simple was to remove old screws without breaking them? This would make it easier to clean and redo it.  

Is there a more easier way to Brown the barrel that isnt bluing? Or whats thoughts on polished metal instead?

Thanks for any help.  

I used cold blue on my Afghanistan "cavalry carbine". It browns over time and looks similar to my English made Snider. I have the dies, brass, and minies, but haven't shot them yet.

how hard was it to blue? did you basically sand off the brown oxide and do light layers of blue with the usual buffing with steel wool between coats? I was looking at some vids on it and the longer the barrel the shittier the worked look mostly when done by hand.. is there an easy way to uniformly blue a long barrel like this?

also edit to add, what brand of blue did you use? any sealers or after products you used with it?



Any chance you could post a pic of your Snider? Would love to see the blue on it.

You can get 24 Gauge shells & cut down for cheaper brass. There are some YouTube videos that show using plastic hulls.

Just FYI for now.


ETA: correct to sound somewhat intelligent.

The ARFcom of these classic old rifles is British Militaria Forums.com
Everything you need to know about identifying, restoring, caring for, and shooting them, etc. can be found there. Caution: it is a very deep rabbit hole, but a rather enjoyable journey. The folks there are incredibly knowledgeable and take their hobby quite seriously; bubba is NOT welcome.

Guys thanks for the above. Today I used Kroil (thanks Cyclone!) and got 160 year old fasteners slowly out. Looks like i have a broken firing pin and missing ramrod (have sourced a new repro ramrod- thanks Big K). Everything else is good I think. Bore looks reasonable free of pits and you can see rifling.  I have the stock off. I cant get the buttplate off, the screws are semi crushed into the brass..i think maybe somebody or something got the fuck pounded out of them by the stock..

Anyhow leaving the buttplate on i can still clean it well I think as its brass ill leave in place for now.  

I am having a problem with the brass trigger guard. IT has two visible screws. All that is left now is the trigger guard, triggers still in stock to with this assembly. Trigger guard has two screws to the aft of trigger closer to buttplate end.  I have these two screws out and trigger guard which is brass is free, yet it is still retained somehow in the front of the trigger with the guard area just seeming to be sitting in the wood. There are no screws left I can see. No pins either. From the top looking into the stock I cant even see the trigger mechanism and section. Any idea what could be retaining the guard still? I used a tiny bit of force but it looks like it may bend before it comes out. Any idea how to get this guard assembly and trigger section out? I have it soaking in Kroil (thanks Brother Cyclone!) and am waiting for suggestions on how to get it out. Any ideas on this one?

Many thanks! Glad the project is finally moving forward!

Edit

Got trigger pack out, it was held by a very small hidden drift pin. All good.. till the next part.

I just used the Birchwood casey cold blue on mine. The liquid form not the paste to be specific. I prepped it with alcohol and luckily it didn't have much rust. The bluing under the wood was pretty good, but the Afghans scrub the guns to the metal before they sell them unfortunately. The top was bare metal. I did the same to my Martini-Henry Ic1 carbine. It's probably a fake but  for the price, I don't care. The Snider carbine barrel is around 19.5" long if I remember right. It turned out OK for what it is. The liquid seems to be easier to get uniform bluing. I started on one end and went down the barrel with cotton balls to apply. I only used the cold blue and it has not rusted since 2017 when I applied the cold blue.

I will have to take more pictures this weekend as I can't find the old pictures.

For restoring old screws, check out Anvil on youtube. He has some good videos on how to make messed up screws work again. He also boils guns and then steam blues them before buffing them out. He tries to not go too crazy so they look more like they would have, rather than a more modern dark blue. I had to source a new firing pin also but I can't remember if it was S&S Firearms or IMA. Be aware that some of the IMA parts are Nepalese and may not fit perfectly. So far the parts I have purchased have fit with little to no work. I also subbed so I can follow what you are doing and help how I can. I own three Sniders, but one is a true piece of junk from the Kabul arsenal. It was not taken care of but will work for some parts. My 3 band is a real Brit Snider, but it has it's own issues I have to fix.

Heres the question of the day. This one I am mulling over

Should I fully strip the metal and blue it?

Or should I just high polish all the metal, so I would have polished steel, polished iron and brass?

There is some providence on the polished Sniders but they seem limited compared to the common browning metal coatings. I mean its not like so fucker is gonna see me and my camel running up the Khyber by the glint of my finally polished Snider!

IF I went the polishing route I was gonna clean then use jewelers rouge and felt dremel heads? Sound reasonable? Or start with a rougher compound then rouge first?

The wood itself based on what ive seen recently looks like mine is pretty good.  I think a strip and linseed oil will do nicely

Guys whats opinions on blueing (Which I have never done before) vs. high polish (which ive done alittle of on other projects)?

I guess I could always polish it mirror like than blue it afterwards correct?

You mentioning sanding of the brown oxide tells me that you will do more damage than good to this gun.  

If you absolutely can't help yourself, cold blue it, as this will do the least damage.  There is no reason to remove the brown oxide first.

Polishing is a great way to put wear on all the markings, and break the sharp edges, branding it forever as a gun polished by bubba.  Don't be bubba.  

Can you give me more details on bluing over the brown oxide? I read a few places that sort of said the final finish would be blotchy? Would the blue even stick longterm to the oxide coating if theres minor surface scale and light pitting? . I get a uniform oxide would be like a base primer, just worried how it will look when a thin coating such as a blue is built up in layers on it.  

I am not looking to bubba it..if I was I would put a 3x9 Tapco on it... with perhaps a laser dot to!

This is why I am making the post, to figure out best way to clean this up and refinish it?

I was wondering about polishing on the proof marks and degrading them.  Read the 1815 British field manual on telling troops no more polishing as it made the barrels and other parts weak over time due to constant scrubbing and polishing in the field.

Its all in pieces right now. I havent done anything to it other than rub brasso on the brass.

I get the bit about destroying history hence the questions as this sort of antique is quite new to me.